


Moments Intertwined

by Settiai



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 2 (Critical Role), Complicated Relationships, Critmas Exchange, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, One Shot, Past Character Death, Pre-Campaign 2 (Critical Role)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28396926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: As the cold river water covered her head, she thought it was the end.She never expected it to be a beginning instead.
Relationships: Nott | Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast, Yeza Brenatto/Nott | Veth Brenatto, Yeza Brenatto/Nott | Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 20
Kudos: 55
Collections: Critmas Exchange 2020





	Moments Intertwined

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wiccy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wiccy/gifts).



It was easy for Veth to fall in love with Yeza. She'd spend her childhood teased and bullied, and if anything it had only gotten worse as she edged closer and closer to adulthood. He was the first person to truly show her kindness, to look at her and see a woman worth knowing rather than someone who deserved ridicule. How could she not fall for him, all things considered?

She never dared hope he might fall in love with her as well.

That's exactly what happened, though, their lives intertwining as if it was as simple as breathing. It felt as if it happened in an instant, yet at the same time it felt like a lifetime. One day he was agreeing to a dare, kissing the odd girl that no one truly liked, and the next thing she knew they were married with a child in their arms.

For the first time in her life, Veth thought that she could be happy. She'd found someone who didn't care that she was different than the other women in their small town, who looked at her and saw what she was instead of what she was not. They had a home and a family and a future. Everything was perfect.

Then the goblins came, and she sacrificed herself so that Yeza and Luc could have that future. She might not be a part of it, but as long as they lived then that was the important thing. As the cold river water covered her head, she thought it was the end.

She never expected it to be a beginning instead.

*

Sometimes she almost forgot who she was. It was rare that someone asked her name – because who would ask that of a goblin? – but when they did she almost said "Veth" more often than "Nott." She wasn't Veth anymore, and she hadn't been for quite some time. But it was difficult to ignore twenty-three years' worth of habit, especially when there was a part of her deep inside that wished more than anything that she was still Veth.

The day she met Caleb was no exception to that.

She didn't think that he caught the slip, or – if he had – he never mentioned it. He didn't think less of her for it. He treated her exactly as he had since they had started their first tentative conversation in that jail cell, like she was a just another person instead of the monster they both could clearly see that she was.

That in itself caught her by surprise. And, if she was perfectly honest, it made her curious. Why would a human act like that towards a goblin?

That curiosity was why she didn't slip away when Caleb's back was turned, those first few days together after they managed to get away. It was why she curled up next to him on a cold night, taking the meager warmth that he was offering her as the gift he clearly intended it to be.

She woke up the next morning with his coat wrapped around her like a blanket as he shivered lightly in the pre-dawn light.

They'd only known each other for five days, and yet Veth – no, not Veth, not any longer, she was Nott, _Nott_ – knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that something had shifted. Something had changed, even if it wasn't until months and months later that she actually realized what it was.

Veth had fallen in love with Yeza because he had been the first person to truly show her kindness.

Nott fell in love with Caleb for the same reason.

*

They'd been traveling together for a little over four months when Caleb saved her life.

It was Nott's own fault, and she knew it. She'd been careless, her itchy fingers making her take risks that she might not have taken otherwise. The moment she felt a hand grab her wrist, the coins that she'd been trying to steal clattering on the street, she'd realized her mistake.

"Fucking little beast," the man she'd been robbing growled, his eyes almost burning into hers as he yanked her by the arm before throwing her to the ground. Her head slammed against it, hard, and her vision was swimming as she sat back up.

Her gaze darted around her, looking for an escape. The street was fairly crowded, although the various shoppers and pedestrians making their way down it were all moving away from her. The man's reaction was drawing attention, and more and more people were looking her way.

Then the man took a step closer, pulling a sword from its sheath, and Nott froze in place. Her gaze focused on him, her eyes going wide as he pulled the sword back. "I'll show you what happens when monsters like you try to steal from me." 

Nott didn't have a chance to react. She didn't even have time to close her eyes in preparation as the sword suddenly swung towards her.

And then, without warning, there was a large form in front of her. She heard a grunt of pain, saw a few drops of blood dripping onto the ground between two familiar legs, and it was only then that she realized Caleb had stepped between her and the blade.

Then there were suddenly four familiar globules of light floating around Caleb's form, all of them perfectly harmless, except the man and the various townsfolk around them didn't seem to know that. Not while Caleb was standing there talking about the horrible ways his magic could kill them, proving without a doubt that none of them were courageous enough to call his bluff. Then there were shouts and curses, and the next thing Nott knew Caleb's arms were wrapped tightly around her, holding her to his still-bleeding chest, as they sprinted through the alleyways that led out of the town.

Later, as Nott carefully cleaned the wound on Caleb's chest – not as bad as it could have been, as the man with the sword had clearly pulled back at the last moment when he'd realized it wasn't going to be a goblin that he hit – she'd bit her lip with sharp teeth that were still unfamiliar no matter how much time passed. "You didn't have to do that, you know."

"Ja," Caleb agreed. "I know."

Nott narrowed her eyes. "Then why did you?"

His only reply was to lean forward and press a kiss against her forehead. "You would do the same for me."

And, well, she couldn't exactly argue with that.

*

The first time she slept with Caleb in the more-than-just-sleeping sense, Nott had a sleepless night afterwards.

It had been quick and perfunctory, nothing like sex with Yeza had been. Neither of them was particularly comfortable with showing their bodies to the other. Nott didn't know exactly what Caleb was hiding under a layer of dirt and unwashed clothes, and she had no intention of asking. He never asked any questions when she mentioned how much she hated her scraggly teeth or pointed claws or too-long ears, and if he wasn't going to pry into her secrets then she wouldn't pry into his.

But she couldn't deny that it had been different.

Neither of them had removed move clothing than they had to, just enough to give them access to the important parts. It hadn't taken very long for both of them to find release either, and there hadn't been a doubt in Nott's mind that it had been as long for him as it had for her – if not longer.

Looking back, she could barely remember the details. There'd been skin on skin, a building pressure deep in her belly, and then she'd come while staring directly into Caleb's blue eyes as he followed only a moment later.

(They should have been brown eyes. Yeza's eyes. But Yeza was far away, and the woman he'd married was dead and gone. She was Nott, not Veth, and Nott had no claim to the anyone or anything from a past life that was no longer hers.)

"You don't have to put up the lights next time," Nott said, looking away sheepishly as she cleaned herself up. She couldn't quite meet Caleb's gaze. "I know I'm not pretty."

There was a long pause before she heard the sound of shuffling behind her, and then Caleb's hand was on her shoulder. "To me, you are beautiful," he said softly, and she could practically hear the comma in his next sentence. "You are Nott, the Brave."

Nott couldn't hear a lie in his voice even though she knew it had to be there. How else could he say those words? She knew what she was and how she looked and just how little bravery she actually had.

"You shouldn't lie," she said, and she tried not to flinch as the multitudes of lies and half-truths she'd been telling Caleb since the day they'd met flashed through her mind.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I'm not," he said quietly. "Not about this."

She couldn't help but flush, just a little, even though she knew the words couldn't possibly be true. It was still nice to hear, despite everything.

*

Once they joined up with the others, things changed. She and Caleb still had sex occasionally, usually when they were lucky enough to have a room to themselves and needed the reassurance of knowing they weren't alone. But mostly they slept together, in the more traditional sense of the word. Just sleeping, nothing else. It was difficult to do more with so many others around anyway, especially since neither of them was the type to really want to make a public show of what they did for comfort.

That was the kind of thing they left to Molly.

Still, it was nice. Falling asleep with someone breathing next to her, that is, and then waking up the next morning to the same. It helped keep the nightmares away.

Being around the others was nice too, even if she trusted most of them about as far as she could throw them. She'd forgotten what it was like to be around other people, ones who didn't treat her life some kind of monster at least. It helped.

But at the same time, it hurt. 

Because as much as she hated being treated like some kind of beast, that's what she was. Nott the Brave, a little goblin girl. It was much easier to remember that when people treated her accordingly. The others, they treated her like a _person_. Like she was Veth.

And, well, thinking about what she'd lost – _who_ she'd lost – the day that Veth had died and Nott had been born? It wasn't the kind of thing that made for good thoughts.

Sometimes she thought it would have been easier if she and Caleb had never decided to go to Trostenwald, even if she felt guilty whenever that thought crossed her mind.

"Easier" wasn't the same as "better," after all.

*

Caleb pointedly put down his bedroll as far away from Nott as possible the first few nights after they'd left Felderwin. Not that it was really all that far away, considering they were all bunched together for safety's sake, but still.

It was obvious that she wasn't welcome to curl up beside him like she'd done almost every night for months and months and months.

Nott didn't say anything. What could she say? She'd been lying to him about everything since the moment they met. He had every right to be upset at her.

She was honestly surprised that he was still talking to her during the day. If it had been her, she probably...

... well, he'd kind of been lying to her too, and she hadn't pushed him away when she'd found out the details about his past. But, you know, she'd known that she was lying to him, so she would have felt hypocritical.

Still, it wasn't quite the same, not really. It's not like Caleb had a spouse and child that he'd never brought up.

Whatever the case, she wasn't surprised when Caleb didn't want her sleeping beside him anymore. So she just put her bedroll down and tried to sleep.

(It didn't really work, but it was fine. What was a little exhaustion if it meant Caleb didn't have any more reasons to be uncomfortable around her? Not pretty. Not smart. Not even a good friend. She was going to lose Yeza once he found out what she'd become, and now she didn't even have Caleb. And it was all her own fault.)

*

Nott stumbled, Caleb caught her, and she knew with just a single glance at him that he knew exactly what the problem was. She'd had a few sleepless nights here and there, and he'd learned quickly what signs to look for considering she did her best not to mention how tired she was when he woke up the following morning.

Caleb shot her a look that she couldn't quite read, a mixture of concern and exasperation and maybe a little amusement as well, before waiting a moment or two for everyone else in the Mighty Nein to walk a bit further along. Then, without a word, he swung her up onto his shoulders.

He'd done it a thousand times before, and yet Nott felt her heart lighten just a little at the gesture. He couldn't be that angry with her if he was willing to carry her, could he?

"I'm sorry for not telling you," she said quietly, her voice barely more than a whisper. She knew that Mister Clay could probably still hear her – he heard _everything_ , and she wasn't entirely convinced that he wasn't reading people's minds – but she didn't really mind. "I get why you're mad, but I am sorry."

There was a long moment of silence, and she thought that maybe Caleb wasn't going to say anything. Then he sighed. "I'm not mad."

Nott snorted at that. She didn't mean to. It just sorta slipped out. "Sure you aren't."

Caleb glanced up at her. "What makes you think that I'm mad?" he asked, and he sounded genuinely puzzled.

"It's not exactly hard to miss that you've put as much distance between us as possible at night ever since Felderwin," Nott said, grimacing as she heard her voice break slightly. She didn't have any right to be upset. She was the one who'd kept secrets. It was her fault that things had changed.

There was another long pause. "I am not mad," Caleb said, her voice so soft that it was barely even a murmur. "I just did not think it would be appropriate, now that I know you are married."

Nott could almost feel the protest on the tip of her tongue. Yeza wasn't her husband, he was Veth's husband. That's the argument she'd been making ever since she'd woken up to find herself in the wrong body. Except that... wasn't quite right, was it? Ever since Felderwin, she hadn't been differentiating between Nott and Veth. Luc was _her_ son, not Veth's son. Yeza was _her_ husband, not Veth's husband. She was Nott, and she used to be Veth, and maybe just maybe they weren't so completely different after all.

With everything that had been going on, she hadn't even realized it.

"Oh," she said quietly, and she didn't even try to hide the surprise in her voice from that realization. "I hadn't thought of that."

She couldn't see his face, but Nott could practically hear the bittersweet smile that he had to be wearing when he said: "Ja, I know. But I have."

It hurt more than it should, realizing what he wasn't saying. But, well, it made sense too.

Nott might love Caleb, but she was Veth too. And Veth not only loved Yeza but was married to him. Suddenly, without warning, it was as if the world had shifted, and everything she'd thought was solid ground was suddenly moving under her feet. She wasn't falling, not yet, but she could almost feeling it coming.

Things suddenly weren't nearly as simple as they had been only a few days before.

*

It still didn't feel quite real to Nott – Veth? it was hard to know exactly who she was when her past life and her current one were colliding so spectacularly – that she'd fallen asleep listening to the sound of Yeza's breathing and then woken up to it the next morning. It had been so long, and yet it felt like it had just been yesterday.

(Caleb's breathing was a little faster and a little louder, even when he slept. She'd never noticed, but now she couldn't get it out of her mind.)

He accepted her wholeheartedly, without even a moment's hesitation. Despite the teeth, and the claws, and the ears. It was if it didn't matter what she looked like. She didn't know how to feel about that.

She was used to the Mighty Nein accepting her, but then again they'd never known Veth, the young halfling woman. They'd only known Nott, the little goblin girl. It was easier to accept someone when that was the only way you had ever known them. But Yeza, he'd known her since she was a girl. A girl on the cusp of womanhood, yes, but still a girl.

It was more than she could have hoped. No, she was still in the wrong body, so it wasn't perfect. But it was the next best thing. She hadn't lost him, despite everything that had changed. And not just how she looked. Nott wasn't stupid. She knew that her time with the Mighty Nein had changed her as much as the goblins had, if not more.

She wasn't the small town girl who'd turned twenty and become an adult only to marry her very first beau a few days later. That woman had been happy to stay in the same town she'd been born in, supporting her husband and raising her children without ever venturing more than a few hours' journey from home. 

But she – Nott, or Veth, or whoever she was now – wasn't that same woman. She'd seen too much of the world. And yet Yeza had still accepted her, despite all that.

"Veth?"

She rolled over to meet Yeza's gaze, and his face lit up with a smile that took her breath away. "Hello there," he said, his eyes running over her face as if it wasn't a goblin looking back at him.

"Hello," she said back, her mouth pulling into a smile of her own. It had to be monstrous, yet he didn't even flinch. He was still staring at her as if she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Nott felt her face flush, and she couldn't help but look away. "I'm sorry," she said, the words slipping out before she could stop them. "I know that I'm not pretty."

("To me, you are beautiful," Caleb had said, all those months ago, and while he'd never said it again she'd still seen it in his eyes from time to time.)

Yeza reached out and put his hand under her chin, gently turning her head so that she was facing him again. "You are to me," he said, still smiling at her.

*

The night after Nott died (again) and was resurrected ( _again_ ), she woke up with the remains of nightmares running through her head. It took her a moment to remember where she was and what had happened, her confusion made even worse by the fact that they had spent the night on the _The Ball-Eater_ , which wasn't exactly somewhere she was used to waking up recently.

Her face stung from the tattoo that Orly had given her, and there was an ache in her chest that she was fairly certain was all in her imagination. Whatever the case, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no possible way she'd manage to fall back asleep.

Yeza wasn't there. He was with Luc, safe and sound and completely unaware of the fact that she'd come close to leaving them both yet again. And Caleb... well, she wasn't sure where Caleb was. Somewhere else on the ship. He'd started letting her sleep with him sometimes again – just sleep, nothing more – but only when the whole group was around. Not anywhere private, like a ship's cabin.

She missed him. She understood why he was distant sometimes, in certain ways, but still. She missed him.

"Nott?"

She jerked in surprise, her head shooting towards the corner of the room. A lumpy shadow she hadn't even realized was there had started moving, shifting into a familiar form.

She knew for a fact that Caleb hadn't been curled up on the floor of her cabin when she'd fallen asleep. It would have been a lot easier for her to go to sleep in the first place if he had been. Which meant he must have slipped in at some point after she went to bed, and he'd been surprisingly quiet about it considering he didn't wake her up.

"Caleb?" she asked, her voice trembling just a little.

The next thing she knew he was sitting beside her, his arms wrapped around her in a comforting hug, and she was trying her best not to cry as she buried her face against his shirt. She could feel him trembling a little bit too, and she knew he had to have guessed what kind of nightmares had woken her up.

"Please stay," she whispered. "Please, please don't leave me alone. Not tonight, please."

He pressed a kiss against the top of her head, gentle and chaste and somehow _not_ at the same time. Nott shivered again, this time for a very different reason.

"I won't," Caleb said, shaking his head. He hadn't let go since the moment he'd wrapped his arms around her. "Not tonight. I promise that I won't."

*

Yeza kissed her, and Nott let herself sink into the sensation of it as he shifted in her lap. No, not Nott, Veth. She really needed to get used to thinking of herself as Veth again considering she'd literally told everyone to start calling her that.

Gods, she'd missed being able to properly kiss someone. She'd never appreciated her teeth until she'd been turned into a goblin, and now that she was a halfling again she would _never_ take them for granted.

After a long moment, Yeza pulled away. His eyes were dark, his pupils blown wider than usual, but he was looking at her with an unusually serious look on his face.

Veth tensed.

"What's wrong?" she asked. She couldn't help but glance down at her newly restored body, looking for signs that it had come back wrong. It wasn't the first time he'd seen it since she'd gotten in back, but it was still fairly new. Maybe he'd noticed something that—

"No, no, no," Yeza said, cutting off her wandering thoughts abruptly. He hand was under her chin, pulling her face up so that her gaze met his before she could work herself into too much of a frenzy. "There's nothing wrong. I promise."

Veth couldn't help but give him a wary look. "That's not your 'nothing is wrong' face," she said. "That's definitely your 'something is wrong' face. Or at least your 'we need to talk' face, and that—"

He cut her off with a kiss, short and sweet and very clearing promising a lot more to come as he pulled away a moment later.

She blinked a few times before giving him a sheepish smile. "You were saying?"

Yeza gave her a gentle smile, without a hint of judgement or anything else in it. "I just wanted to let you know that, well—" He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "I know that a lot happened to you, and that you were alone for a long time. Then you weren't. And, well, I'm glad that you weren't. I really am."

Veth blinked at him. "But?" she asked slowly.

"There is no 'but,'" he said quietly. "I just wanted to let you know that I understand. And I'm happy that you found the Mighty Nein." He gave her a knowing look. "That you met Caleb."

She felt like the floor had suddenly been pulled out from under her feet, like she was freefall with no chance of using magic to catch herself. It wasn't as if she'd planned on keeping a secret. There just... hadn't been a good time to tell him. Besides, nobody had known except for her and Caleb.

(They hadn't, had they? Nobody had said anything. But, then again, Caduceus saw and heard everything. And Jester wasn't nearly as naïve as she liked people to think she was. Had it really been as big of a secret as they'd thought it was?)

And, well, it was in the past. Caleb had made that clear.

(Even if there was a part of her that wished otherwise. Not always. Only sometimes. But it still felt like a betrayal, now that she had her husband and son and _body_ back.)

"Veth, it's fine," Yeza said gently. "I'm not upset. I promise. I mean it when I say that I'm happy you have somewhere there for you when I couldn't be."

She swallowed a few times, trying to find the words to reply. "Had," she finally managed to choke out. "Not have. Had. He didn't—" She stumbled, trying to find the right wording. "I didn't mention you and Luc. Not at first. I should have, but I didn't. I'm sorry. Nothing's happened since he found out, I promise."

Yeza stared at her for a long moment, an unreadable expression on his face. Then he smiled at her, and it was the same smile that he'd worn after he'd kissed her on a dare all those years ago and realized that it hadn't been nearly as much of a hardship as he'd expected.

"You love him, don't you," he said, and there wasn't a doubt in her mind that it was a statement rather than a question.

Veth bit her lip. "I love you," she said, knowing full well that wasn't an answer.

If anything, his smile grew a little wider. He leaned in to press another kiss to her lips, this one just a little longer than the last. Then he pulled away again.

"You should invite him to dinner," he said decisively. "Just the three of us. I'm sure that I can find someone to watch Luc for a few hours."

Veth blinked. She blinked again. Then, for good measure, she blinked a third time. "Wait, what?"

*

There was a part of Veth, a large part, that wanted to leave Caleb in the dark. She was fairly certain he wouldn't agree to dinner if she told him _why_ Yeza had insisted on inviting him, and the last thing she wanted to do was disappointment Yeza.

But, well, she'd kept so many secrets from Caleb. That's what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. It didn't seem right _not_ to tell him, even though she had no idea how he was going to react.

She owed him that much.

"Yeza wants you to come to dinner," Veth said casually. Or, at least, as casually as she could manage, which apparently wasn't all that casual based on the look that Caleb was shooting her.

"Why is that?" Caleb asked slowly.

Veth shrugged. "I'm not sure," she said. Then she hesitated. "I, uh, may have a guess about it."

Caleb's eyebrow rose ever so slightly. "Oh?"

She gnawed on her lip for a moment. It was a bad habit, but it didn't hurt nearly as much now that she had the teeth of a halfling again instead of a goblin. "You know how we, uh, used to..."

Veth trailed off, waggling her eyebrows a bit.

Caleb's face turned slightly red, a blush rising high on his cheeks. "Yes, I remember," he said. "But what does—" He cut off abruptly, the red all but disappearing in an instant as his face went almost white. "Ah. You told him then?"

"No," she said quickly, shaking her head. "No, I didn't tell him. I didn't have to." She gave him a weak shrug. "He said that he could tell. From the way you looked at me." She hesitated for a moment before adding: "And from the way I looked at you."

He stood there for a long moment, not moving, and it took everything in Veth to resist the urge to reach out and take his hand. She knew him well enough to know that would just push him away.

"How likely is it that I should expect there to be poison in my food?" Caleb asked suddenly.

Veth blinked. Considering what Yeza did for a living, she supposed that wasn't such an off-the-wall question as it might be otherwise.

"Well, I'm going to be the one cooking," she said slowly, "so probably not? Does that mean you'll come to dinner?"

Caleb nodded, a wary look on his face. "Ja," he said. "It is only fair."

Slowly, making sure he had plenty of time to pull away if he chose to do so, Veth reached out and took Caleb's hand. "Thank you."

Caleb smiled at her, and in that moment Veth knew exactly what Yeza had meant when he'd said that he'd figured out that there was more than just friendship between them because of the way that she and Caleb looked at each other. She recognized that smile.

She'd seen it on Yeza's face just an hour or so earlier, as he'd kissed her goodbye as she walked out the door.

*

They talked about everything and nothing, all of them dancing around the dragon in the room. It was easier that way, giving Caleb and Yeza a chance to feel the other out. Oh, it wasn't as if it was the first time they'd met, but most of the time, all of the Mighty Nein had been with them. They'd never really had a chance for a real, proper one-on-one conversation.

Veth couldn't help but be a little surprised at just how well the two of them seemed to be getting along, all things considered.

Which made it all the more surprising when, in the middle of dessert, Yeza took a large bite of the pastry that she'd gotten from a nearby bakery that Jester had recommended, swallowed, and then turned to Caleb to say: "You love her, don't you?"

It was a good thing that Veth had been trying to cut back on her drinking. If she'd had anything in her mouth, she was fairly certain she would have spat it out.

Caleb was mid-chew on his own pastry. He paused for a moment, staring at Yeza, before finishing chewing. His gaze drifted towards Veth before he turned it back towards Yeza.

"I care for her greatly," he said carefully, "but I'm well aware that she is your wife."

Yeza sighed. "That's not what I asked," he said, and Veth was surprised to hear a hint of iron in his voice. It wasn't something she was used to hearing, not from him at least. "You love her."

It wasn't a question this time. It was very clearly a statement.

Caleb's eyes flickered towards Veth again. Very softly, he sighed. "I do," he admitted. Then he turned his attention back towards Yeza, narrowing his eyes slightly. "So do you."

It wasn't a question for him either.

Yeza's mouth twitched. "Of course," he said. "She's my wife. I wouldn't have married her if I didn't love her."

Veth felt the corners of her mouth turn upward. It was hard not to, hearing the surety in Yeza's voice – in _Caleb's_ voice – when both of them said the same thing. Especially since it wasn't something she was all that used to hearing, when it all came down to it.

She had no idea how this was going to play out, but still. For just a moment, at least, she felt like the world might actually be on her side.

Caleb stared at Yeza, who in turn stared back at Caleb. A second of silence passed. Then another. And another.

Slowly, Yeza smiled. "I think the three of us need to have a long talk," he said, his own gaze moving away from Caleb and towards Veth. "And then I guess that I'll need to look into getting a larger bed for the apartment."

A startled look appeared on Caleb's face. "Was?" he asked, shaking his head as he apparently realized he was speaking Zemnian. "I mean, what?"

Veth shot Yeza a surprised look, her eyebrows going up.

Yeza's face went a red. "For the two of you! For when you're here! If you want, I mean," he said hurriedly. "I mean, don't get me wrong, you're a very handsome man, but I don't know you well enough to make that kind of proposition yet!"

Caleb stared at him.

So did Veth. "Yet?" she repeated.

If anything, Yeza's face turned an even brighter shade of red.

So did Caleb's.

After a long moment, Veth burst out laughing. She wasn't entirely sure why. Happiness? Relief? Actual amusement? A combination of the three with a dozen other emotions mixed in as well? Anything was possible. All she knew was, for the first time in a long time, everything felt _right_.

Caleb and Yeza shared a long look before turning their gazes back towards her. Then, slowly, they both began to smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter. (https://twitter.com/settiai)


End file.
